80sSuntour wrote: ↑Wed Mar 07, 2018 8:14 pm
hey all, I'm finally getting a new bike after putting good miles on my old one with Chorus 10s. I'm debating the merits between a good old fashioned road build with new ultegra or even dura ace, vs a disc bike with or without electronic shifting. I've never tried either. My local dealer does Bianchi and Scott, so I'm going with those brands. THe only Bianchi with disc is the Aria, but the xr3 is coming soon, but the bianchi is generally more money than scott, at least when talking about the bikes with countervail. don't think I need that since I'm a vet who somehow survived michelin 700x18c tires in the 80s. anyway, we have at most some rolling hills around here so no real advantage to either discs or light weight, so there is not a whole lot to drive my decision. I mostly do group rides and solo stuff, usually fairly short and fast (i.e. don't need all day comfort, prefer performance over endurance options). any thoughts? (and please don't suggest Canyon and other brands besides the 2 I mentioned, I'm sticking with my local dealer whom I like. he may even give me a tiny discount, free service the first year, etc. I do my own work, but they are good wrenches and won't mind helping learn new tech like di2 and hydro if I buy from them. so carbon aero vs light and all that good stuff is what I want to talk about. thanks
ps I'm in US so builds will be with Shimano. that's how they mostly come here and I'm not fighting manufacturing specs.
My 2c.
1.Di2. This depends of how good a home mechanic you are and your local weather. If you often tune your gears have good cables and outers especially alloy casings, oil/change your chain often and are careful about keeping your drivetrain clean then you can get very fast accurate shifts reliably. If you can't or hate tuning your bike and don't have a repair stand and dirty wet weather that can gum up your cables then go for electronic shifting.
2. Disks, again depends on weather if it's very hilly and wet yes. It's much been discussed but me having years around twenty years experience wrenching mountain bike and motorcycle brakes I think that in dry conditions disk brakes on a road bicycle are a lot more (too much) complication for a very marginal gain. If you are a budding home mechanic and you are interested in how to bleed brakes, true rotors, change more expensive pads more often etc then certainly. I wouldn't pay too close attention to the opinion of early adopters as these maintenance issues will probably only show up around 20,000 kms or 2 years of riding, whichever is sooner, there is a learning curve which means your time and expense buying new tools. Sure disks are the future, but maybe let the future development decide on future standards and design better lighter disk brakes.
3. Aero. 80% of aero comes from body position so if you ride mostly on your own you could get a nice light climbing bike but put some clip-on TT bars and you're there anyway. Although if I were riding crits or on the flats in groups then I would go for an aero bike.